IT'S GOING TO BE SOMETHING

"If I traded it all ...
If I gave it all away for One Thing,
Just for One Thing ...
If I sorted it out ...
If I knew all about this One Thing,
Wouldn’t that be something?"

(One Thing by Finger Eleven)

Yesterday evening, Melissa and I were stopped at our local JayC grocery store to grab a quick and easy family dinner of deli fried chicken on our way home from Indianapolis when I heard these pop song lyrics playing faintly over the sound system.

"If I traded it all ... if I gave it all away for One Thing..."

And I teared up just a bit.

The tears weren't about me or my family - although this song really resonated with me a few years ago when Melissa and I were selling everything and packing our family for the move to Haiti. Saying goodbyes. Wondering what the future would hold.

Yesterday the song moved me to tears for our friends (and soon-to-be co-workers) Jeff and Chris Love and their son Camden. Because they are going through that same turmoil RIGHT NOW.

Jeff in the garage - Smiling through it all ...

The Love family (I know, right?) first visited the OMS ministry in Vaudreuil just a couple of years ago. Long story short, God spoke to them about serving at Cowman School long term and they said YES. Chris will be teaching junior and senior high science courses for us full-time while Jeff will be helping out part-time with math.

Our family is excited for Cowman and for the Loves because we are convinced it's going to be SOMETHING once they hit the ground in Haiti.

But NOW? Now it is rough and I just want to ask our praying friends to remember this precious family in your prayers in the coming days and weeks. Yesterday Melissa and I were in Indy to help Jeff and Chris with the final few frantic hours of moving the last odds and ends out of their house of 17 years and cleaning the place from top to bottom in preparation for new owners.

If you have moved recently, you know that the job is ten times worse than you anticipate going into it. Add to the stresses of a "normal" move all the extra decisions and the lightening of the load that comes when you are heading overseas. Each and every item silently asks, "Should I be thrown away? Sold? Given to somebody? Packed in the suitcase? Placed in the shipping crate? Put in long term storage?" Add, also, weeks of difficult goodbyes and some serious health issues among extended family, and you'll perhaps understand why I am asking you to lift the Loves in prayer. They are in the midst of a physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining process. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel...

Melissa and I and the kids have much to do over the next two weeks, but we are excited to head to the airport on August 16th because we'll be going HOME. But we're also excited because the Loves managed to book their seats on the same flight, so we'll be heading into Haiti together. We have already pledged our willing assistance, in those first few weeks especially, in making sure they are fed and shown the ropes.

It's not going to be easy - and they know that - but it IS going to be SOMETHING.

Something beautiful.
Something fulfilling.
Something stretching.
Something God made them for.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

- Ephesians 2:10

Dinner in Indy with the Loves and another new Cowman teacher, Kacie, a couple of weeks ago.